"He has put eternity into man's heart…." Ecclesiastes 3:11
A few weeks ago, Nate was reading through Matthew 6 before bed and we were discussing it. The chapter is a bit confusing because it seems to link all of the various sections together as though they are part of one continuing thought. There are some obvious themes such as hypocrisy, worrying, praying, etc. We were trying to figure out how they all worked together though. The one unifying theme that we could find was eternity. In the first three sections on giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting, the focus seems to be on hypocrisy. I think however that the real theme is about our focus---whether it is eternal or in the moment. Are we interested in earning a small, fleeting reward now or a greater treasure in eternity? He sums all this up in the Treasures in Heaven section.
Then you've got this whole section about not worrying. This one is pretty convicting. He doesn't chastise us for worrying about trivial things like social status, bad haircuts, designer purses, etc. That would be perfectly reasonable. No, God actually commands us not to worry about the basics: what we eat and drink and what we wear. That's a lot harder. I can easily justify worrying about whether we'll have food on the table, be able to pay the bills, afford our rent, etc. After all, these are the essentials of survival. How can God ask me not to worry about them? He has a point though---by worrying can you add a single hour to your life? Is there any benefit in worrying? In planning and being wise and working hard, absolutely. In worrying? Not at all. Then, God ties it back into eternity. The pagans worry about the concerns of this life, but we have a God who already knows that we need them and is perfectly capable of providing without our worries. Our focus shouldn't be on this momentary existence but on eternal things-his kingdom and his righteousness. The best part is that he promises that if we seek these things, the others will be provided as well.
This has been on my mind for weeks now because I've spent more time worrying since I got pregnant than pretty much anything else. I've worried about miscarrying, birth defects, what I eat, what I don't eat, remembering to take my daily vitamin, taking too many meds, everything we have to buy, everything I have to get done, what kind of job I'll be able to handle and keep up with an infant, whether she'll hate the name we choose, etc. etc. etc. And those are just the immediate concerns. What about all of the millions of parenting decisions we'll have to make? It's been a daily struggle to remember that God is really in control of it all and that he's given us such a blessing already. It's easy to forget that I spent 12 months worrying that I wouldn't ever be able to have a baby and yet God answered that prayer and my worrying didn't help anything. The point? My time and energy is far better spent on the eternal and on having faith in an all-powerful God rather than worrying about what I cannot help.
